Yes, the outraged and disbelieving attitude of the staff towards the midnight feast by Joyce Linton and her friends, and the way it almost became CS history seemed very strange to me, even reading it as a young girl.

While I doubt many real life schools took the twinkly eyed 'girls will be girls' attitude of the Malory Towers staff, neither would it have been seen as crime of the century. EBD obviously thought Joyce becoming seriously ill as a result, another girl being also laid up, and the other 'culprits' being reduced to guilt laden tears was appropriate and just.

Midnight feasts, in my experience, were always more enjoyable in anticipation than in reality! Our headmistress disapproved of them even more than EBD, and threatened that anybody caught having one would have to stay on an extra 24 hours after everybody else went home; our housemistress, however, took the opposite view and knew when one was mooted - and made sure we knew she knew. As long as it was the last night of term, and you kept the noise down, she turned a blind eye. All the same, it was never as much fun as you thought it was going to be.

Of course, the possible dating of Darrell's year group is further complicated by the fact that, although "First Term" was published in 1946, there's no indication in the text as to when the book might be based.

Given there's no mention of any kind of rationing, the coast seems completely accessible and there's no mention of anyone having relatives in the Armed Forces, the books seem more likely to be set before the Second World War than immediately after it.

The only real dating reference is a comment in one of the later books about "another" of Bill's brothers having gone gone to do his national service which does align with the publication date

Of course, the possible dating of Darrell's year group is further complicated by the fact that, although "First Term" was published in 1946, there's no indication in the text as to when the book might be based.

Given there's no mention of any kind of rationing, the coast seems completely accessible and there's no mention of anyone having relatives in the Armed Forces, the books seem more likely to be set before the Second World War than immediately after it.

I think it's more likely EB set her books during the year they were written, but just deliberately opted not to include the war in them unless it suited the plot. For example, The Valley of Adventure came out in 1947, and the plot sets it very definitely after WW2. Similarly, one of the books she wrote that did include the war, The Adventurous Four, was published in 1941 and shows the Nazis as pretty much at the height of their power, which they would have been at that point in the proceedings. The sequel, The Adventurous Four Again, takes place the following Easter, but was published in 1947 and makes no reference to the war.

Probably she/her publishers decided after the first TAF book that it was better and/or easier/more convenient to just avoid mentioning the war and rationing (don't want to mess with all those loving descriptions of chocolate, sausages, sardines, ices and lashings of ginger beer, after all! ), and set the books in a sort of parallel universe where everything was as it was before the conflict, but set in the present day. She wrote a lot of major ones during the war - the first couple of Famous Fives, the first Mystery book, the entire St Clare's series, the majority of the Secrets books, the first Adventure book - and none of them make any mention of Britain being at war, or even heading towards it.

I don't think Darrell was timid at all - she wanted a fun friend like Alicia (who later lets her down) rather than the quiet and staid Emily and Violet.

Yes, I wouldn't have said timid either. A bit overawed during her first few days, and in thrall to Alicia who seemed so cool and daring, but she found her feet quick enough and threw herself into school life.

I don't think Darrell was timid at all - she wanted a fun friend like Alicia (who later lets her down) rather than the quiet and staid Emily and Violet.

Yes, I wouldn't have said timid either. A bit overawed during her first few days, and in thrall to Alicia who seemed so cool and daring, but she found her feet quick enough and threw herself into school life.

OK, but she's not sauntering and swaggering around as a new girl.

It was just a tongue in cheek piece. I don't think it was meant to be taken seriously in any way.

I don't think Darrell was timid at all - she wanted a fun friend like Alicia (who later lets her down) rather than the quiet and staid Emily and Violet.

Yes, I wouldn't have said timid either. A bit overawed during her first few days, and in thrall to Alicia who seemed so cool and daring, but she found her feet quick enough and threw herself into school life.

OK, but she's not sauntering and swaggering around as a new girl.

It was just a tongue in cheek piece. I don't think it was meant to be taken seriously in any way.

I know it's a tongue-in-cheek piece. I also think it's not a well done tongue-in-cheek piece.

It was just a tongue in cheek piece. I don't think it was meant to be taken seriously in any way.

I had a real chuckle over it, and it spawned an idea for a drabble of my own. I spent quite a chunk of the weekend looking for my copy of 'In the Fifth at Mallory Towers' but gave up in the end and bought a Kindle copy.

I seem to recall the newer editions have all been bowdlerized though, and all references to any form of physical assault replaced with the description 'a jolly good scolding'. Can't imagine why!

Political correctness - Not the Done Thing nowadays corporal punishment!!

I wondered that, but between girls? I can't imagine the potential for the odd scrap has diminished over the years - the way my Guides tell it, there seems to be a fight every week at their high school!

There's a scene in one of the MT books where Alicia describes her cousin June as really cheeking Alicia's brother Sam, and IIRC he gives June a choice between being spanked 20 times with her own hairbrush or running 20 times round the paddock every morning.

She chooses the latter, but the bowdlerized version sees her having the choice between 'being well scolded' or doing the run. Whilst I appreciate the inappropriateness of an older boy physically punishing a young girl, the rewrite does make June's choice seem really weird. Who would choose weeks of hard exercise over a one off lecture.

I had a real chuckle over it, and it spawned an idea for a drabble of my own. I spent quite a chunk of the weekend looking for my copy of 'In the Fifth at Mallory Towers' but gave up in the end and bought a Kindle copy.